Moody cats soften up US inmates

2012-05-03 14:13

Yacolt - When Princess Natalie was still a kitten, before she was prison royalty, she was left in a cage with another cat for months. They were fed, given water and not much else.

Natalie became afraid of people and other cats. When she was adopted, she hissed at her owners, made a mess in their home and bit them at every opportunity. They gave up and handed her over to a shelter.

Natalie was scheduled to be put down. But then a programme at a minimum-security prison in Washington state presented another option: Hand her over to a pair of inmates.

The 6-year-old, long-haired black cat would live in their cell, get outside time daily and learn manners. For Joey Contreras, aged 28, Natalie's arrival in March was his ticket out of a 40-man dorm and into a two-person cell with a door.

Contreras and his cellmate, after passing the screening process, are two of the four inmates in the "Cuddly Catz" programme at Larch Correctional Facility in Yacolt.

It wasn't awesome at the outset. She came as advertised, Contreras said - moody, dysfunctional and prone to violence. But the changes in his newest cellmate are evident.

She can now be petted, brushed and even held for a few minutes. She still growls but rarely hisses. She has a scratching post and perch that takes up a healthy chunk of the cell. Contreras and his cellmate care for her in shifts.

The programme's other cat, a half-Persian mix named Clementine, is in the care of Richard Amaro, who said the experience has been about more than escaping dorm life.

"You get close to them," Amaro said.

The prison hopes to add four more cats. Inmates accepted in the programme have to exhibit good behaviour - infractions can mean being sent back to the general population.

Prison counsellor Monique Camacho said the experience helps reinforce the concept of teamwork for inmates who are used to looking out for only themselves.

"In prison, they tend to think about No 1," Camacho said. "Now they have to look out, care for and have responsibility for something else."